


Stars That Pitch White Needles into the Pond

by somedayisours



Series: A Splinter in My Mind [5]
Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: Afterlife, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Episode Related, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lines taken straight from the show, Purgatory, Spoilers, Time Loop, Time Travel, no disrespect intended, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 10:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19271401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somedayisours/pseuds/somedayisours
Summary: He wakes up. He does not immediately realize he shouldn't have.





	Stars That Pitch White Needles into the Pond

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the poem _Go_ by Kathleen Ossip.

"Valery Legasov?"

"Yes."

"You are the Legasov who is the First Deputy Director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy?"

And that is not right, now through the thinning haze of sleep, he's beginning to remember. "No."

"No?" The voice on the other end repeats, a note of surprise caught in Boris' voice instead of the bullishness Valery himself had grown used to hearing from the man when he grew impatient.

There is a lull in the conversation then where neither of them speak.

"Today is April twenty-sixth..." Boris pauses. "Nineteen-eighty-six," He says, at last, voice softer than before.

"No—" He thinks of the meal of cigarettes and vodka he had chewed through while recording his final words, of having to tighten his belt to the farthest hole in it could go to order to keep his pants up in spite of his lost weight. The shirt he'd ironed and hung earlier that morning in preparation, the tie and coat and leather shoes he hadn't worn in many months broken out from the back of his closet. There'd been no need for such formal clothes in the months leading up.

"It is April twenty-sixth," Boris continues with an edge of frustration creeping in the further he speaks, "There's been an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. A fire, the control system tank exploded."

There's a break again, a gap for Valery to speak but he doesn't know what to say. So he says nothing.

"General Secretary Gorbachev has appointed a committee to manage the accident. You're on it. We'll convene at two this afternoon." But Boris doesn't hang up immediately, he lingers for a moment as if mulling over what to say. "We'll speak further then."

**Author's Note:**

> While I'm not sure I'll never expand further on the idea by adding another chapter I want to make it clear that Legasov isn't the only one to wake up in the past. And it wouldn't just be Shcherbina that remembers as well.


End file.
